In Deep Waters
by Sam Petrelli
Summary: "Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump. The sound of my heart beating loud in my ears is the only noise I here as I start to realize what has happened. That my name has been called and I'm being dragged up the stairs to the stage where they stand me next to a boy that I know all too well, the boy who my sister likes and adores is now my opponent, my prey."
1. 2 Weeks Ago

_Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump. The sound of my heart beating loud in my ears is the only noise I here as I start to realize what has happened. That my name has been called and I'm being dragged up the stairs to the stage where they stand me next to a boy that I know all too well, the boy who my sister likes and adores is now my opponent, my prey._

_Next thing I know I'm being dragged by my arms out of sight of the crowd and my sister along with the boy. They then proceed to take me into a room where people will say there last goodbye to me._

_My sister, Thalia, is the first one to come in, her eyes filled with tears. She then proceeds to run over and I quickly embrace her, as though something is after her._

"_Hey, it's going to be okay. Look at me, look at me. I'm probably not going to be around any anymore. You know how to fish. Briar will be there to help you at all. You're the last Hayes, make me proud." I say giving her one last hug before the brooding Peacekeeper grabs her out of my arms._

"_Stay alive; don't forget" my sister screams as she's dragged out of the room._

That was 2 weeks ago, the last time I ever saw my sister. Now I'm standing here on the pedestal… 5… being showcased in front of these freaks…4… I'll try to come back to you Thalia…3… I won't let these people pull us apart…2…. Here they are counting down my death…1… I don't want to die… BANG!

Let the Hunger Games begin.


	2. New Allies

It takes only a few seconds after the bang to realize what is going on, the games have begun and everyone is scattering and grabbing any rations they can their hands on. I quickly run to the Cornucopia dodging knives and fists as I go, placing each step carefully. I finally manage to grab a small box when I feel two hands being placed on my shoulders. I quickly turn and ram the heel of my hand into his nose and run in the opposite direction toward the forest, without looking back.

After a few minutes of running through the forest I stop to catch my breath and open the box I managed to grab. The things inside the box are: a small fisherman's knife, fishing wire, some hooks and some flint. I quickly slide the newly acquired items into my belt and pockets when I hear noises off in the distance. I start to slowly creep up behind the tributes and when the right moment strikes, I jump out and tackle the girl at the back of the group. When I have her pinned under me I ready my knife to kill her, until I hear a familiar voice.

"Wait! Don't kill her. It's just us." At that moment I look up to see my District partner, Tiberius Edenthaw. I quickly lower my knife and proceed to get off of and help up the District 3 girl.

"I didn't think you were going to make it we saw the District 9 boy go after you. He could have snapped your neck." Tiberius said with a look of shock on his face.

"Well, I took care of him… I hope." I tell him as I glance over my shoulder once and a while.

"Hi I'm Lartius Lapworth and that's my district partner, Dorothea Dinwiddie. According to Tiberius, he thinks we should be allies." I'm reluctant, but I proceed to shake his hand.

"Dorothea and Lartius? District 3."

_(Flashback)_

_I turn to the TV as I realize Ceaser Flickerman has started to say something._

"_As you all know, the Tributes are rated on a scale of 1 to 12 after three days of careful evaluation. The games keepers would like to acknowledge that it was an exceptional effort by all. Now let's take a look at the scores. First, from District 1 we have Marvel with a score of 9, and Glimmer with a score of 8. District 2 we have Cato with a score of 10, and Clove with a score of 10. District 3 we have Lartius with a score of 7, and Dorothea with a score of 6. From District 4, we have Tiberius with a score of 8 and Laurel with a score of 10." Me and my crew celebrate and I miss some of the other districts scores. When I tune back in they start to talk about District 9._

"_Now District 9 we have Rendwick with a score of 9." I fade in and out throughout the scores announcement._

"_From District 11, Thresh with a score of 8 and Rue with a score of 7. From District 12 we have Peeta with a score of 8 and finally from District 12, Katniss Everdeen, with a score of 11." At that point my attention was turned toward the TV. That had definatly caught my attention._

_(Flashback Over)_

"Yes, I think that would be good, but there is a few more people I would like to try and find."


	3. Oops

After our confrontation, I sent off Dorothea and Lartius to get lessons about fishing while I collected some plants and berries. Soon I came across Rue pinned against a tree with the District 9 girl with her hand around Rue's neck. I decided to lie in wait for the right moment. Rue quickly notices me in the bush and I hold up the knife pointing towards the girl and make a hush signal. I then jump and throw the knife lodging it in her left arm, causing her to let go of Rue's neck. Rue runs towards me and I run towards the girl who quickly turns and tries to smash the side of my head. I quickly deflect it and flip her onto her back. I put my foot on her neck and quickly turn it, snapping her neck. I turn towards Rue as we hear the "Boom!" ring out through the forest. She slowly approaches me, unsure of my feelings towards her. I then hear Katniss yelling Rue's name as she quickly approaches. When she arrives she runs over to Rue and hugs her.

"I heard the cannon and I thought it was you, I was so worried." Katniss finally looks up to me remove my knife from the district 9 girl. Katniss hides Rue like a concerned mother before she begins to speak.

"You're that District 4 girl that got a high score. That's pretty impressive, considering you're not a career."

"Hey, your score was pretty impressive to. You-you're that 12 girl that volunteered. That must take guts." I cautiously walk over and extend my hand to her.

"Hi I'm Laurel Hayes. We should be allies, you and I." Rue cautiously extends and shakes my hand aswell.

"I'm Katniss and this is Rue. I think we should. Is there anybody else with you?" She starts to walk behind me as we head back to my meeting place with my other allies.

"Ya, there's my district partner, Tiberius and district 3." We quicky arrive at our meeting place, Katniss and Rue behind me. Immediately, Lartius runs at them with a spear. I quickly extend my arm in front of him, close lining him. He looks up at me, choking and looking perplexed.

"What the hell!? There our allies! You don't run up and attack them!" I snapped at him. Dorothea helps him up as I introduce Rue and Katniss. With all the drama I didn't even realize that it had gotten dark out. While were setting up camp, we hear the anthem play. I see that the tributes have been killed in just the first day: Both of district 7, district 8 boy and both of district 9. When I see the face of the district 9 boy the only thing that escapes my lips is "oops, I guess I did kill him". When the girls picture appears I then say. " Well, I guess I killed the whole district." Everybody looks at me, both shocked and disgusted that I could say something so cold… so mean…. so…. Me. I just look at them for a moment and announce that I'll take the first lookout shift and walk over to the edge of the camp and sit there, keeping a lookout, waiting for everyone else to fall asleep.


	4. Pain From The Past

After a few hours of lookout, I hear a noise behind me and I look over to see Tiberius walking over to me.

"What was that?" He starts to say as he sits down beside me.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, that thing today."

"Umm… I said a lot of things today. Which one do you mean?"

"That thing about district 9"

"What, you mean 'oops'? I didn't mean to kill the boy, he came at me and I reacted."

"But you said it so coldly"

"Well… he was going to die anyway. It wasn't my fault. It's kill or be killed in this game."

"Yes, that's true, but these kinds of things used to beat you up inside, until your parents died. You just never fully came."

"Don't you talk about me like you know me. You know nothing."

"I know that you used to be this fun, happy person. Now you're just this cold, emotionless shell."

_(Flashback)_

_Three years ago, my parents, Leonis and Blye, were happy and loved us a lot. We had our own boat and We had a good, comfortable life. My parents were starting to teach us how to fish, showing us the ropes. One day my parents were out fishing by themselves and my dad was in charge of sailing the boat. He went to grab his fishing pole, looing away for a few seconds, and when he looked back they crashed right into a rock. My mother was sent overboard into the dark, unforgiving sea. With no time to waste, my father dove in after her. He saw her at the bottom and swam over to help, realising her clothes were caught on a rock. They both tried to release her clothes, but to no avail she still could not move. My mother saw that our father was running out of air and realised it was too late, so she shoved him towards the surface. He woke up on another ship, but found that his wife didn't survive._

_After that incident, my dad never forgave himself. He just sat there for months, drinking and mourning over what happened to his wife. He never stopped blaming himself for what happened._

_5 months after, he just lost it. He drunkenly stumbled onto a boat and took it out. He continued to drink and recklessly steer the boat into the dangerous part of District 4's sea. Soon enough, he crashed into the shore and drowned. The next morning I was the one to find his body, shielding my sister of the horrific image that has stained my memory. Ever since that day my sister and I have grown into two different personalities; an untrusting, cold person and a warm ever reaching out child whom trusts and loves everyone. I both respect and am jealous of her innocence, for I believe I can never get mine back._


	5. The Shock Of It All

What does he know, he never went through that… how would he know anything. I sat there for a bit before I finally spoke.

"You don't know anything, so shut up and stop bothering me." I then promptly got up and walked to the other side of the camp. I and he just sat there for the rest of the night, not speaking a word to each other. I didn't because I was mad, obviously. Mostly I think he didn't because he thought I was going to stab him, just out of anger.

I wake up to find out that I must have dosed off during the night. I then notice Tiberius sitting alone without a blanket, which is now draped over me. Feeling still a little angry, but thankful at the same time, I start to walk over to him before I promptly punch him in the arm. He does not say a word, just looks over at me with slight confusion on his face.

"I'm still a little angry at you, but thanks for the blanket." I then proceed to hand it back to him. I start to hear the others stir and I turn and walk over to them. We all swiftly pack our things into our bags. We decide that Katniss and Rue can go and collect food, while the rest of us stay here.

Soon after they leave I start to hear rustling and voices in the distance. I look over at Dorothea and silently signal her to go scout the careers. She swiftly and silently creeps away, without a trace.

After 25 minutes she didn't return. Tiberius had started to worry about her, and the fact that the careers were getting closer.

"I'm going to go scout the careers, and find Dorothea. I'll be right back."

"No, it's too dangerous. She's gone and you know it."

"It'll be fine." He gave me a reassuring smile and silently slipped away. At that moment I hear something that freezes me in my place; _scream, bang, snap, bang._

The sound of the second canon jolted me into relasation of what happened, my sister's boyfriend was killed on my watch. What is she going to think of me now?

I then turn to Lartius and screamed at him to run. As I'm running I look back and see Cato round the corner behind us. I then look forward in time to see Lartius look at me with panic in his eyes before he runs face first into a tree.


	6. Emotionless Shell

As swiftly as I see Lartius fall down I turn around and run at Cato, using my bodyweight to take him down. I punch him in the nose, most likely breaking it. I then turn and run over to Lartius, grab his hand and drag him behind me as I run and don't look back.

We have been running for what seems like 15 minutes, before we stop to catch our breath in a clearing by a river. We start to dig around to create camouflage, when I found something of particular interest. I pick it up, I've only seen the filthy capitol people wearing them before. I start to poke and press buttons on it before it lights up, and I quickly toss it away from me, before it explodes. Lartius walks over to me with confusion written all over his face. I continue to create a camouflage of hole in the dirt with rocks around it.

"What? What is it?" He then walks around as I point to were the peculiar object landed.

"What this? It's a watch. It won't hurt you at all."

"…but it lit up, like it was going to explode." I walk over, looking curiously at the "watch".

"Fine, but you can keep it, Techy-Boy". We then start to hear rustling close by, and we quickly head back to the camouflage pit and slip inside. We soon start to hear voices outside and realize it's Katniss and Rue. I climb out of the pit and they quickly spot me, and run over in a state of panic.

"There you are, we heard two canons and weren't sure what happened. Where's everyone else? How many made it?"

"Only me and Lartius. Tiberius and Dorothea didn't make it." I said as I turned, as not to see my emotionless expression.

"Oh my God! What happened?" I tell her as briefly and quickly as I can what happened.

"While we were out, I found the careers pile of supplies and Peeta guarding it, we have to go after him."

"We can't go after him, especially not you. They'll be expecting you. I'll go. You stay here."

"NO! I'm going, and you can't stop me."

"You can't because, you're too emotional."

"And you have no emotion."

"Exactly. I'm not tied down by emotions, I can think clearly."

"I'm coming with you, at least to the edge of the clearing. Okay?"

"Fine, but no farther than the tree line. If you do that, then we both know you'll be dead in seconds." We all gather our things and start to head off to Peeta and the clearing.

When we get there, we see that the careers have arrived back and Cato and Peeta are talking. At that moment Peeta pats Cato on the back. He then puts his hands on Cato's nose and snaps it back into place. They then shake hands and pat each other on the back. What just happened?!


	7. Hand Me The Peeta

I quickly realised what Peeta's whole plan was; to stick close to the careers for most of the games and try and take them out at the last minute. I contemplate about his strategy, and came to an agreement of how smart it really was. I see that Cato is talking to Peeta about something frustrating and decided to move closer. When I sneak closer I hear him talking about his run-in with me, excluding some embarrassing details.

"She came at me with 9 knives and threw them one by one. She probably used that skill and that's why she got such a high mark."

"Come on, man. Really? We've got all the knives."

"Okay fine, she only had one. But it came pretty close look." He turns his head to show a red line on the side of his neck. Please, that wasn't a knife… that was a tree he ran into. He's just too egotistical to admit he got beat by a girl." I'm watching them when I see Peeta look over at me and give me a small wink.

"You going to let her get away with that? Hey, what was that over there? You didn't hear that?" Cato looks at him confused as he's points in the opposite direction of me and my group. Cato gives the careers a nod in that direction and tells them to follow him.

Once the careers are gone far enough I quietly sneak out of the bush and walk over to Peeta.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I cuff him on the back of his head releasing some of my frustration.

"What are you talking about? I just sent the careers away so I could talk to you. I'm to go after the careers from the inside; I'm still on your side."

"You and Cato seem pretty buddy-buddy from my point of view." Through all my frustration I take my right arm and whip it around close-lining him at the same time as I bring my leg under his own, knocking him to the ground. I then kneel beside him and put my right arm over his throat, ensuring he doesn't move. I start to beat him senselessly when Cato and Clove arrive. Cato runs up behind me and puts his arms around my neck ready to snap it when Clove yells at him to stop.

"Wait, we could still use her as leverage." Reluctantly, Cato pulls me to my feet and drags me to a nearby small tree and ties my hands behind my back.

After a few moments of clearing his head, Peeta begins to get back up onto his feet. Cato walks over assessing his injuries and notices the dislocated shoulder.

"Jeez, she really did a number on you. Hold still."

"What?" Cato grabs Peeta's arm and snaps it back into place. Peeta lets out a pain filled scream as he grips the injured shoulder.

At some point during the day I doze off, completely exhausted at the whole situation. Later I abruptly wake from a nightmare. I feel how lose my binds are and find that with Cato, Clove and Peeta distracted, now would be the best time to wriggle from the rope binding my wrists.

Cato comes over with a big cocky grin on his face and crouches in front of me.

"You think you're so great. The District 4 girl with a score of 10 that got the upper hand on a career. Well let me tell you something, I think you're going to die. You and every last tribute I can find." I find it perfect that at that moment I bring my now freed arms around and grab Cato's head and head-butt him. Dazed and confused I toss him to the side as I jump up and run for the career's pile. I swiftly and quickly run up the pile and swipe some knives. As I run down I notice Peeta who is completely oblivious to what is going on and run in behind him, putting my knife to his throat. Slowly I start backing away, only waiting to turn until the forest engulfs us.


	8. Alone With The Bread

As soon as we are out of sight from Cato, I drop the knife and release Peeta. He looks at me for a few seconds before I signal him to follow behind me quietly. We walk around the field and eventually get to where Katniss and the rest of my group where standing, only to find them missing. I look at the sky to see how dark it has become and conclude that they are probably back at the camp. I lead Peeta back there, hoping to find them there.

We arrive after a little bit of walking through the forest. I see that no one is here yet and get slightly concerned, but not by much. I tell Peeta that we should wait for the Anthem to play to see if they are dead or not. Peeta agrees and we wait for the dreadful Anthem to start. Soon I start to see the faces appear. I see Dorothea's face and feel no emotion about what happened except when they get to my dead district partner. His face appears and I don't feel guilt, more or less sadness for my sister, for I know she will be devastated.

They show the boy from District 5, both of District 6 and then the sky goes dark. I look over at Peeta who seems to be relieved that Katniss and our other friends are still alive.

"It's okay Peeta, we will find her." I say in the least robotic way possible. He looks over at me, smiles and his face lights up as though he's remembered something.

"I just remembered, when I was working for the Careers, I would take some stuff and put it in this hole. It's not much, but it could help."

"Do you remember where it is?"

"Definitely."

"Well, let's go then." We get up look around for anything left here. I see nothing and we start towards the stash.

We had been walking for a while when I had a strange feeling, we weren't alone. They weren't too far away and were getting closer. I whispered to Peeta to keep his eyes open and to watch his back. I could hear them walking, they were on the other side of the tree and were rounding the corner. I grabbed my knife and was ready to strike.


	9. Sudden Realization

I swiftly thrust my arm down, with knife in hand. My hand hits and arm, blocking my blade. I quickly jerk the knife back, running the blade over their arm. I hear a grunt and a held back scream when I look up and notice, it's Lartius and Katniss. He looks at me like I just stabbed him. Close enough.

"What the hell is wrong with you? We're on your side." I just roll my eyes at him as I look over at Katniss who smiles at, or past me. I don't really care. Soon pushes past Lartius into a tree, hitting his injured arm. She then runs over and hugs Peeta. I just can't understand these feelings that she has towards this boy. He has no unique abilities, and is a burden in my opinion, but yet she longs to protect him. I wonder if I could ever feel like that with someone, or if I'll die alone in this cold, dark pit I find myself in.

She kisses him and turns to us as I ask simply "Where's Rue?" At that moment I hear a blood-curdling scream of a young girl. Katniss looks at me with a look of fear and freezes. I grab Katniss by the arm and we all start to run in the direction of the girl we meant to protect.

When we get there, I see the District 8 girl standing over Rue's body, with a bloody knife in her hand. She looks up at us with a look of madness and comes charging at me. I grab the knife from my belt and throw it square between her eyes, killing her instantly.

Katniss, in a state of shock, stumbles over to Rue and falls to her side.

"She's already g.." I begin to say as I get cut off by Peeta putting his hand over my mouth. Katniss begins to breakdown and cry. Peeta, very slowly, starts to walk over to Katniss. He puts his arm around her shoulder and she completely ignores her touch as she puts her head on Rue.

"I was supposed to protect you. You and Prim and everyone else I love. I'm so sorry." She gathers herself slighty, gets up and starts picking flowers. She just keeps mumbling "_She was more than a piece in their games."_

"This is waste of time. The carriers could have herd that scream. They could be here any minute." Peeta just looks at me with slight disgust.

"Help. It'll make her feel better." Peeta says as he and Lartius join in. I start to pick flowers, just thinking how pointless this is.

When we finish we all turn to the camera in the tree, put our three middle fingers to our lips and show towards the camera.

"Show them that were not just another piece in their game." Katniss says, and then we all turn and walk away.

We all walk away with solemn looks on our faces. We don't say much, just Katniss or Peeta talking to each other mostly. We eventually realize that we are exhausted and stop for the night. Katniss and I take the first shift.

I look at her before I begin to talk about some battle tactics we could use against the Carriers.

"Why are you so cold? You haven't shown remorse or any emotion other than anger and hate."

"Because, it's kill or be killed."

"But if you act like that, than you're become just like them. You're giving them a reason to keep watching. What happened that made you stop being human?" I just look at her with one thought in my head"_You don't know me. You never did and you never will understand me"._

"I know you think I couldn't possibly understand, but I lost my father and almost lost my mother. Then these _people_ thought they could try and take away my sister. You can tell me, I can help. I can understand what you're going through, but you have to be willing to open up to somebody." I look over at here and she gives me an expression of sympathy and compassion. For a few moments I feel, an emotion, something so foreign to me. Feeling uneasy with the whole idea, I quickly turn away and wake up Lartius for his shift.

I'm awoken by the snap of a branch on the ground and the sound of a sword being unsheathed. I open my eyes and turn my head slightly to see something so shocking. Lartius is kneeling beside Peeta with his knife above Peeta's heart, ready to strike. I swiftly and quickly twist my body and run over tackling Lartius to the ground. Peeta screams out as his leg is deeply sliced. Katniss wakes from Peeta's scream and notices Lartius and me. She runs over to Peeta to tend to his wound and to defend him from further assaults.

The momentum of hitting the gournd knocks the knife out of his hand and sends it a few feet away. I look up at him as I hold on to his legs. He turns from his side to his stomach as he scrambles for the knife. I pull back on his legs before he reaches it. He looks around and spots a fist sized rock which he uses his momentum to bash into the side of my head, stunning me. I touch my head and notice the blood right before he pushes me backwards, knife in hand. He sits on my stomach, to keep my where I am, to finish the kill. As he raises his hand, Katniss grabs a knife from Peeta's belt and throw it at Lartius' hand, causing him to drop the knife. I quickly knee him in the back. As he falls forward, and catches his balance leaning over me, I put one foot on the other side of his leg, grab and pull his arm towards my chest. I push my hips up, knocking him off balance and push his to the side. As he falls I roll on top of him. I look around and grab the rock, hitting him in the head, stunning him. I walk over to the knife and pick it up, with a gleam in my eye. I walk over to him as he focuses again.

I then say with a sneer "Welcome to the Hunger Games." As I slit his throat.


	10. Alone In The World

I start wiping the blood from the knife on Lartius' shirt when I hear the cannon in the distance. I stand up and look over to Katniss and Peeta.

"What were you thinking?" I start spouting off to her as I walk over to her. "What if you had've missed? You could've hit me."

"I saved your godamn life! The least I could get from that cold heart of yours is a thank you!"

"I bet you wouldn't even have cared if I died. You'd just stand there and watch me drown!" I finally scream at her, only realizing what I said by the surprised and sympathetic look on her face.

"Laurel, I'm sorry. I didn't know.." she stutters out, with this look of, compassion maybe? It's a look I've never seen before, like she knows how I'm feeling.

"It was a long time ago. I-It's fine." I say as I walk over to Peeta.

"Let me see it." I say as I lift the fabric on Peeta's leg. It looked deep, possibility for infection. Not good.

"Hey score of 11, do you have any medicine?" I ask putting myself back together before looking over at Katniss. She is about to say something when we hear the noise of seems someone tapping on a microphone on a PA system.

"Attention tributes. Attention. The regulations acquiring a single victor have been suspended. From now on, two victors may be crowned if both originate from the same district. This will be the only announcement." Peeta and Katniss look at each other and I can already tell what they're thinking.

"Well, go ahead. Do it. Go ahead! You two lover birds just have to get rid of me, the Carriers and you can both go home. Just do it! I've got nothing to go home to. My sister will never forgive me for letting her boyfriend die. My parents are gone. Do it, you at least deserve to be happy." I start screaming as tears stream down my face. I've been realising this since I heard that cannon of the one person in the games that I could trust. I have no life after this.

I grab the knife from my belt, put it in Katniss's hand and put the point to my chest. I look into her eyes with a look and feeling of both fear and sadness. Katniss swings the knife back and I close my eyes.


End file.
